How Africa is challenging itself to end war in four years

Nothing that was ever invented has caused as much death and suffering in Africa as the gun. In Uganda, for instance, half a million people are estimated to have died in the war that brought President Museveni to power in 1986. Hundreds of thousands more Ugandans died in the wars that were fought before or after that. In many cases the end of one conflict in one country has somehow led to the starting of another.
Poverty, economic hardship, violation or manipulation of constitutions, violation of human rights, exclusion, inequalities, marginalization and mismanagement of Africa’s rich ethnic diversity are what the Peace and Security Council identified in its report to the African leaders as the major causes of armed conflict in Africa.
The leaders, during the 28th Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from January 30 to 31, resolved to end war in Africa by the end of the year 2020. That is four years from now.

“President (John Pombe) Magufuli (Tanzania) asked me why 2020 and not now,” Ms Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the out-going chairperson of the African Union Commission, said during the opening ceremony of the Assembly.
Mr Magufuli has projected himself as a man of action. If people find problems getting treated at a particular health centre, he goes there personally and faces the health workers. And coming from Tanzania, one of the few African countries that have not experienced any significant civil strife and war since independence, Mr Magufuli perhaps doesn’t see why people are using guns to fight for power elsewhere.

The challenge
But the challenge is steep. By committing to end fighting in Africa by the year 2020, the African leaders have perhaps set themselves a challenge steeper than any they have ever set before.
This is because the causes, many of which have been highlighted by AU Peace and Security Council as listed above, are diverse and conflict. But sometimes countries go to war and societies get destroyed just because people vying for power hate each other too much to compromise.
Dr Remember Miamingi, a South Sudanese activist, for instance, believes that the failure for president Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar is to a large extent driven by “personal hatred” between the two men. In the case of Uganda, many have argued that President Museveni hates Dr Kizza Besigye so much that he cannot hand over power to him even if he won an election.

Whatever the cause of the conflict, the AU Peace and Security Council reported to the recently concluded African Union Assembly that ten countries had been either on the brink of war or at war in the six months immediately preceding the meeting.
The countries include The Gambia, the tiny West African country that almost went up in flames after Mr Yahya Jammeh, who had held an iron grip over its affairs since 1994, first conceded defeat but then changed his mind and denounced the election results. Ecowas, the regional bloc, had actually sent in troops to remove Mr Jammeh when he eventually took the option of a flight to exile.
The other countries are South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Libya, Sudan (Darfur), Guinea-Bissau, Burundi and Western Sahara.

Some of the cases are old, like the Democratic Republic Congo whose eastern part has almost been perpetually engulfed by war, and Somalia, which slid into instability following the exit of former president Ahmed Siad Barre in the early 1990s.
Some of the cases are new, notably Libya, which had been tightly controlled by Muammar Gaddafi until he was deposed and killed following the fallout in 2011 between rulers in the Arab and citizens. Some rulers, like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, were swept aside by the revolts after measurable resistance, but Gaddafi chose to fight on and many civilians were killed, leading to the emergence of an internal armed group, which was later militarily supported by Western forces.

The plan
Between November 7 and 9, 2016, the member countries of the AU Peace and Security Council met in Lusaka, Zambia. The theme of the meeting was “Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa by Year 2020”.
The AU Peace and Security Council comprises 15 member countries, which have equal rights within the group. Uganda is currently one of them. The other member countries are Algeria, Botswana, Burundi , Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Egypt, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo and Zambia. The chair rotates among the member countries on a monthly basis and Sierra Leone chaired the committee for the month of January during which the AU Assembly took place.
In coming up with the plan to “silence the guns by 2020”, the committee was said in its report to the Assembly that it was guided by the forth aspiration of Agenda 2063, which is Africa’s strategic framework for social transformation of the continent over the next five decades.
Agenda 2063, among other things, provides that in order to achieve sustainable conflict prevention and resolution, “a culture of peace and tolerance must be cultivated and nurtured among children, youth and others through peace education.”

The agenda looks to end all wars, civil conflicts, gender-based violence and genocide in Africa within the first decade of its implementation.
The AU Peace and Security Council, in order to realise this by all means ambitious objective, set African leaders what it calls “realistic, practical, time-bound and implementable” steps to follow through the end of 2020, when the last bullet in a war zone is expected to be fired anywhere in Africa.
To keep track of progress, the leaders agreed that progress will be monitored and evaluated on a six-monthly basis, culminating in the elaboration on a case by case basis by the AU Peace and Security Council of a stand-alone report to be presented to each ordinary session of the AU Assembly during the period 2017 to 2020 by the end of which the guns are expected to have fallen silent.

Achieving conflict free Africa

In the OAU/AU 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration adopted by African leaders in Addis Ababa in May 2013, the leaders expressed a determination “to achieve the goal of a conflict-free Africa, to make peace a reality for all our people and to rid the continent of wars, civil conflicts, human rights violations, humanitarian disasters and violent conflicts, and to prevent genocide. We pledge not to bequeath the burden of conflicts to the next generation of Africans and undertake to end all wars in Africa by 2020.

To achieve this, the leaders undertook to do the following:
Address the roots of conflicts including economic and social disparities; put an end to impunity by strengthening national and continental judicial institutions, and ensure accountability in line with our collective responsibility to the principle of non-indifference.
Eradicate recurrent and address emerging sources of conflict including piracy, trafficking in narcotics and humans, all forms of extremism, armed rebellions, terrorism, trans-national organised crime and new crimes such as cybercrime.
Push forward the agenda of conflict prevention, peace-making, peace support, national reconciliation and post-conflict reconstruction and development through the African Peace and Security Architecture; as well as ensure enforcement of and compliance with peace agreements and build Africa’s peace keeping and enforcement capacities through the African Standby Force.

Maintain a nuclear-free Africa and call for global nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Ensure the effective implementation of agreements on landmines non-proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
Address the plight of internally displaced persons and refugees and eliminate the root causes of this phenomenon by fully implementing continental and universal frameworks.

Some “practical steps” set to end war in Africa by 2020

Provide adequate funding to strengthen and support the Africa Standby Force
Clarifying the mandating process between the African Union Commission and the Regional Standby Forces in the deployment of the African Standby Force.
Consolidate agreements for pre-emptive/rapid deployment of the Africa Standby Force as a deterrence and/or response mechanism.
Verifying regional pledged capabilities to the Africa Standby Force
Establish clear channels of communication on early warning reports to the Peace and Security Council of the African Union and enhance linkages between early warning information and early response by decision makers.
Expose those who deny brewing crisis
Stop suppliers and recipients from promoting and sustaining illicit business in arms/weapons
Enhance structural conflict prevention
Stop rebels/insurgents, non-state actors and their financiers and political backers from accessing weapons
Renew political leadership from time to time through periodic free, fair and credible elections. Upholding constitutionalism.
Strengthen preventive diplomacy
Sanction member states that sign and ratify but fail to comply with AU’s instruments.
Operationalize AU Special Fund for Prevention and Combating of Terrorism and Violent Extremism
Revitalize AU Peace Fund
Dismantle the nexus between corruption/illicit financing/drugs